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62d Congress "» cTrxrATT? i Document 

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MORAL EDUCATION 



REPORT 

OF THE 

COMMITTEE ON MORAL EDUCATION 

OF THE 



HIGH SCHOOLTEACHERS' 
ASSOCIATION OF THE 
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA 



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PRESENTED BY MR. GALLINGER 
June 5, 1912.— Ordered to be printed 



WASHINGTON 
1912 




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REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE ON MORAL EDUCATION OF THE HIGH 
SCHOOL TEACHERS' ASSOCL^TION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA. 

The committee on education, working as two subcommittees, con- 
tinued the study of moral education with Miss Bucknam as chair- 
man, and vocational training under the direction of Miss Throck- 
morten. 

The committee under Miss Bucknam, following the recommenda- 
tions of last year's committee on education, investigated the feasi- 
bility of direct moral instruction. 

The subject was found to involve the following problems: 

1. The right teacher. 

2. Whether or not a textbook should be used. 

3. What textbooks are available and of value. 

4. How best to adjust the work in our present curriculums. 

Our deduction is that it is no longer a question as to whether you 
or I believe in direct moral instruction; it is only a question as to how 
long before the schools in Washington will follow the trend of national 
and international thought on this subject. The forces at work in this 
direction are as powerful as were the forces that brought manual 
training into the schools 20 years ago. 

The report of the National Education Association for 1911 says, 
"Moral education is rapidly finding a place in the course of study of 
the most progressive public schools." 

The further work of the committee was to investigate the following 
formal courses of study; those prepared by the National Education 
Association; by a commission of Michigan State teachers; by Prof. 
Sharp, of Wisconsin University; and the courses of the Ethical School 
of New York. 

The committee agree that the following principles are fundamental 
in any treatment of the subject. 

1. Since morality relates to the conduct of the individual in society, 
work in the field of moral education must utilize the social instinct 
in developing motives of right conduct. Such procedure will work 
against self-seeking, which is at the bottom of most wrongdoing, and 
will put emphasis upon the idea of service. 

2. Education in morals should be constructive of right ideals, atti- 
tudes, and habits. 

3. There are two distinct phases of the subject of moral education — 
training and instruction. Of these the former is the more important. 

4. While the school may not teach religion or religious truth, it can 
at least assume their existence, and in all its instruction maintain 
respect for the same. 

5. There must be no mistaking or underestimating the moral pur- 
pose of the schools as a socializing agency, or the personality of the 
teacher as a molding influence in the lives of the pupils. The 

3 



4 MOEAL EDUCATION. 

question of the teacher's personaUty is the all-absorbing topic of every 
worl^ on moral education. 
Some of the problems are — 

1. How to make the personality of the teacher more effective. 

2. How to convince teachers of the importance of their influence. 

3. How to make moral qualifications more prominent in the selec- 
tion and retention of teachers. 

The committee has made two collections which it urges the members 
of the association to borrow and read. The first of these is of excep- 
tional inspirational value, as it deals with the tributes to great 
teachers of our own time. The second contains references from cur- 
rent literature concerning the value of the teacher's personality. 
These in every case testify to the fact that not profound scholarship 
but breadth of sympathy and intelligent insight are qualities of the 
ideal teacher. The great movement to-day in public affairs is not 
fundamentally political, nor even fundamentally economical; it is 
fundamentall}^ moral, and in a very true sense it is fundamentally 
religious. This, a quotation from a current magazine article, we 
consider a warrant for our interest in moral education. 

The subject of vocational training is closely alhed to that of moral 
education. Vocational guidance, a development of the past five 
years, means directing the attention of the vast army of young people 
to the possibilities of the various vocations. This work is develop- 
ing along many lines, but all are based on the fundamental idea of 
preventing waste of time and life by helping workers to choose early 
the right occupation. 

The social significance of this movement is beginning to be appre- 
ciated in all parts of the United States, but active work is as yet, with 
a few exceptions, limited to the larger cities — New York, Boston, 
Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and St. Louis. 

The subject has received more attention in Boston than anywhere 
else, to judge by the number of organizations that carry on the work, 
and the practical value of that work. 

Vocational guidance work in New York City has centered in the 
activities of the High-School Teachers' Association. The association 
has for many years maintained a student's aid committee which has 
been of service in securing information about vocations, directing 
students into proper channels, and publishing information about voca- 
tions. The work has been supported by donations from the High- 
School Teachers' Association and has been carried on outside of 
regular school duties. 

The subject of greatest interest to the promoters and teachers of 
vocational education at the present time is the Page bill, which has 
been introduced during this Congress. The bill calls for an appro- 
priation of $5,000,000 for instruction in trades, industries, and home 
economics. 

Harvard has already established a course in vocational training, 
and De Vincent, of Minnesota, has in preparation plans for the exten- 
sion of this work throughout the university course. Meanwhile busi- 
ness interests in the cities are cooperating to advance what they deem 
a time saver, a bridge between school work and life work. 

This year in our own school system two of these vocational schools 
have been established — one for white and one for colored pupils. 



MORAL EDUCATION. O 

The promoters of this interest in our schools are most enthusiastic 
and expect rapid increase in the number and accommochitions of 
schools. 

This is only a brief view of the many interesting problems that are 
being attempted now in our country. In Europe, especially in Ger- 
many, the work has reached much larger proportions. 

Moral education and vocational training are but two phases of the 
same subject, since it is agreed that to teach the pupils how to fit 
themselves in body, mind, and soul to fill the place that may be theirs 
in the service of men is to teach the best sort of ethics. 

G 



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